I’m not sure if you do new year resolutions or goals or whatever, but last year I wrote a post (What’s Up for Me in 2019) where I laid out my goals for this year. I had some big ideas in mind about all of the things that I was going to do. I was going to be healthy, I was going to pay off debt, I was going to write this, that, and the other thing (including a book). Of all the things I wrote in that post, this post makes it so that I completed exactly 1 of those things. I said that I would write and publish 1 blog post per week … and I did! I feel great about that!
But I didn’t accomplish any of the other things I set out to do in the beginning of the year. None of them. I am not healthier now than I was then. I did not pay off any of the debt that we have. I didn’t write anything other than the posts for this blog. I accomplished like 10% of what I planned on doing.
I’m really proud of this blog and I’m super stoked that I was able to accomplish what I did. But I am pretty bummed that I didn’t do anything else.
There are lots of reasons that I didn’t finish those goals. But none of them are good. I just didn’t keep my own advice. I didn’t keep my goals in front of me, I didn’t put them on my calendar with a deadline, and I know I didn’t make them a priority. I was lazy and I didn’t try. That’s really what it comes down to.
I just started reading Atomic Habits by James Clear and in the beginning of the book he says that “we do not rise to the level of our goals but we sink to the level of our systems.” He also says that people don’t follow through on their goals because they are not a part of who they are … the goal is not a part of their identity.
Both of these are true for me. I didn’t have a good system in place to make sure that I was able to reach my goals. And I definitely didn’t make my goals a part of my identity. My goals were too large, with no structure, and I didn’t really believe in them. That’s a disaster waiting to happen.
I’m hoping to turn that around in 2020. I have a “theme” for my year and I’ll be setting some goals based around that theme and that theme only. They will be small, they will be based around things that I can turn into habits, and they will help turn that theme into part of my identity. We’ll talk about that next week.
I do want to take a minute to thank you all for hanging with me this year and reading what I write. I hope that I was able to say something that helped you along on your journey. I’m looking forward to seeing what next year (and the next decade) has in store and continuing all that we’re doing here. See you all in 2020!